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. 2019 Nov;22(11):1987-1989.
doi: 10.1111/ele.13218. Epub 2019 Jul 17.

Isotopic niche is not equal to trophic niche

Nicolas Hette-Tronquart  1
Affiliations

Isotopic niche is not equal to trophic niche

Nicolas Hette-Tronquart. Ecol Lett. 2019 Nov.

Abstract

The work of Sheppard et al. (Ecol. Lett., 21, 2018, 1395) relies on the strong assumption that isotopic niche is equal to trophic niche. Here I raise three main concerns showing that classic hypotheses built upon trophic niche cannot be directly interpreted in isotopic space. Future studies should always keep isotopic and trophic niches distinct.

Keywords: Feeding strategy; intragroup competition; isotopic space; niche overlap; niche partitioning; stable isotope; trophic space.

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